Barry Fitton

[Doreen Peri]

I loved Barry Fitton. I loved his personality, his poetry performances, everything about him.

Unfortunately he had been suffering from cancer and who knows what else for years and in Amsterdam, where he lived, apparently choosing euthanasia is legal.

He passed the other day because of his choice and sadly, someone posted a photo of his dead body on Facebook. I couldn’t look at it. I had to “hide” it. I’m sorry he chose to go, to be honest. I can’t support euthanasia. Nor can I support posting photos of dead bodies.

Many of you may remember him from Litkicks. RIP Barry.

Just like him, I’m an outspoken person. This entire situation makes me sad, angry, and ill.

[sasha]

I can understand circumstances (I think) where someone might choose euthanasia. But posting a picture of the corpse on social media strikes me as ghoulishly weird & a breach of taste. Guess we're just out of touch.....

[Doreen Peri]

Agreed. Bad taste, definitely. Whoever posted it on his behalf is out of touch. Not us!!!

I hope your hip replacement recovery is going well. Apologies for not responding to you about that yet! But I’ve been thinking about you.

[judih]

Maybe Barry requested that his picture be posted. Who knows. He was one weird poet! Fabulous and outlandish. The past years of pain must have been excruciating. At least, he was able to control his exit.
(and I also recoiled at that picture. Too bad that they didn't offer a warning, but I guess facebook isn't sophisticated enough to give a viewer an advanced option)

[stilltrucking]

jh wrote:

facebook isn't sophisticated enough

you crack me up
I don't remember barry on litchicks but I remember barry on S8, not the same I think
sorry to hear of a poet's death.

[Doreen Peri]

Judih … that’s exactly what I thought… that he had requested a friend post the photo for him. He was a performance poet. This was his last stage poem, a public exit. I told him I was sorry he was leaving but I couldn’t support euthanasia. I’m glad I told him that. I was also glad Facebook had a “hide post” option. I certainly didn’t want to see it again.

I guess there’s something to be said about having control over your departure but I’ve known too many people who have attempted or succeeded at suicide in my life and I can’t support it. It made me very upset. Thx for talking to me about it.

Jack… that was another Barry.

[Doreen Peri]

Pardon me for my opinion on this. “Who am I to blow against the wind?” -BD

[zero_hero]

An idiot wind is who I am.

so many of the writers I love have been suicides
I guess my opinion is; love the sinner' abhor the sin.

[Doreen Peri]

Eventually this entire Discussion board will be one big graveyard. Haha. Not funny sorry

[stilltrucking]

ONE FRIDAY IN APRIL
A Story of Suicide and Survival
By Donald Antrim

Throughout this engrossing, necessary book — part memoir, part philosophical treatise — he argues that suicide is “a disease process, not an act or a choice.” Those who suffer from mental illness and die by (or “of”) suicide do not take their own lives, Antrim says, but have their lives taken from them. There is no will involved when one succumbs to disease. He insists that the language we use to talk about and write about suicide matters, and that when we ascribe agency to the afflicted (“killing” oneself or “committing” suicide), we misrepresent their experience and belittle their struggle. There are obvious exceptions to this understanding of suicide: terminally ill patients, hunger strikers, kamikaze pilots.

By Heather Clark
Oct. 12, 2021